Jamie Vardy explains that Skittles vodka hampered his recovery from injury

Jamie Vardy has admitted that his love of Skittles-flavoured vodka slowed his attempts to recover from injury.

Revealed in an extract from his soon-to-be released autobiography, published in The Sun,  the Leicester striker recalls his early days with the club, when he struggled to recuperate from a dead leg. When the injury took longer than expected to heal, a conversation with the club's physio revealed that his penchant for Skittles in vodka - *only* red and purple Skittles, we should add - was having a negative impact on his leg's recovery.

'I went nine games without scoring and one of the staff got an insight into the way I was living away from football,' Vardy explains. 'I had a three-litre vodka ­bottle at home I would put loads of Skittles sweets in. 'Once one batch had fully dissolved, I’d top it up with more — only the red or purple sweets because I don’t fancy the orange, green and yellow ones. I must have put a different batch in at least 20 times. 'After that, you can drink the vodka neat and it tastes just like Skittles. When I was bored at home in the evening I’d pour myself a glass, sit back and enjoy. The vodka was decent but it wasn’t doing much for my dead leg, which didn’t stop bleeding for ages. 'Dave Rennie, the physio, said he couldn’t believe it wasn’t improving. He’d seen a torn calf muscle heal quicker. 'He pulled me aside one day when nobody else was about. “What are you doing?” Dave asked. “Nothing I wouldn’t ­normally do,” I replied. 'Then I explained that what I’d normally do was drink Skittle vodka. '“Well, that will be why, then,” Dave said, looking a little shocked, before going on to explain the science behind it and how the alcohol was damaging the healing process. 'I got on a downer because the season wasn’t following the pattern of previous years, when I was used to scoring loads and being the main man. My way of dealing with that was to go and get pissed with my mates in Sheffield.'

Who'd have thought that repeatedly drinking vodka would have a negative impact on a professional footballer's health, eh? Clearly not Vardy. We'll have to wait to see if the Skittles vodka tale makes it into Jamie Vardy : The Movie.